With one of Team Marine’s main focus being reducing plastic pollution, it is truly amazing that by recycling cans and bottles we can keep them off our beaches and also use them to buy life straws. Thanks to our mentor, Mr. Kay, not only did Team Marine participate in this recycling sorting event but also his marine biology, biology, and college students! It was great of them to come help and it made the whole process a lot quicker when it became a group effort. One of my favorite parts out of the whole thing however was when our glass bottle group decided that they would make some eco-art of their own and truthfully displayed “The United States of America” out of glass bottles. It was a humorous moment and although that looks like a lot of bottles it was barely a fraction of what we collected that day. Compared to our past sorting events this one definitely takes the cake. I am proud to say that altogether we collected 8,550 #1 plastics, 385 #2 plastics, 1731 aluminum cans, and 923 glass bottles for a grand total of 11,589 cans and bottles! We raised more than $579.45 for Water Solutions for Life which means about 105 lifestraws which is way more than we have ever gotten this entire year! Needless to say, today was an amazing day for life straws. So far we have funded for around 262 lifestraws which really makes a huge difference in the life of someone who may not have access to clean drinking water. In fact it probably saves their life, and that is why this is one of our most important long term projects that we strongly believe in. To learn more about Water Solutions for Life please visit watersolutionsforlife.org.